Our Partners in Sustainable Education and Health Projects in Guatemala
Miracles In Action is fortunate to work with several fine NGO (non-governmental organization) charities who share our commitment to making a lasting difference in the lives of those we serve. These established charities and other grassroots partners have excellent reputations and help us help others.
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Location of partner charities around Guatemala.
Aldea is our construction partner for 20 of our schools, including School of Miracles #1 and most of our water systems projects. They work in partnership with the rural Mayans of Patzun and Santa Apolonia in nutrition, water, stoves, animals, and agriculture projects using participatory community development.
Amigos de Santa Cruz has coordinated Miracles in Actions’s largest project, a 3-story vocational center serving 6000 villagers around Lake Atitlan, in addition to helping coordinate our safe stove project in Santa Cruz. Their mission is to help support education, better health care, a cleaner environment and sustainable economic development for the remote village of Santa Cruz and surrounding areas.
Constru Casa builds schools in all parts of Guatemala, along with over 700 houses. This charity partners with villagers and volunteers who work together to build from traditional construction of block, to Eco-bricks made from bottles filled with plastic trash. Construcasa provides follow up visits for 4 years after school construction, and they implement additional projects such as water filters, stoves, roof repairs, and retaining walls.
Let’s Be Ready supports the academic success of at-risk Guatemalan children through establishing preschools that focus on preparing students for 1st grade. Miracles in Action has worked with this NGO to provide preschool opportunities in rural areas of deep poverty. For more information, visit Miracles in Action’s 1st preschool project.
Magical Classroom is an off shoot of Let’s Be Ready in villages so remote that qualified preschool teachers are not available. Classes are conducted by a local “facilitator” who uses a tablet and speaker to play audio stories, songs and lessons, following along to show the children the drawings from the story book and doing arts/craft activities. The students are all ages 4, 5 and 6 years old, and many speak only their mother’s indigenous language. Magical Classroom teaches them Spanish and prepares them for 1st grade at age 7.
Listo Listo strives to develop, produce, and sell a nutrient-rich, high protein snack food geared towards combating malnutrition in children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years. This healthy snack (food supplement) sells in the small village stores where children buy sodas, candy, and chips, and now with Listo, they have a healthy, tasty option in small packet providing protein and vitamins for better growth and development.
Link under the word LISTO.
Limitless Horizons Ixil creates opportunities for the indigenous youth, women, and families of Chajul, Guatemala to develop the academic and professional skills needed to effect change in their lives and community. We provide support for the community library, computer lab and leadership training.
Maya Health Alliance is our partner in nutrition programs under the direction of Anthrologist Anne Kraemer and Dr. Peter Rohloff, MD (Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School) conducting research on nutrition solutions in Guatemala. Nutritionist, Andrea Guzman, coordinates home visits and cooking/nutrition education with her team of 11 Nutrition Promoters working in indigenous communities where malnutrition is staggering. Andrea is Director of the CAN Project (Culinary, Agronomy, Nutrition) a website and database sharing educational information, videos, recipes, and workshops with other non-profits and health programs working to combat malnutrition. www.ProyectoCAN.org
The Ripple Effect works in Quiche area in remote, mountainous, and extremely poor villages of Ixil Maya people. On their training farm in Chel, TRE teaches women how to raise farm animals, grow a garden and to purify their drinking water. We support them through our pigs and chickens distribution program, plus agriculture, vented stoves, water filters, solar lamps, and village water projects. Founder Michael Ewens’ blog is a fascinating, adventure story with photos from remote villages where he is the first white man these people have met. A must read– The Ripple Efftect Blog
Semilla Nueva (New Seed) helps rural Guatemalan farmers find a path to prosperity, health, and sustainability through agriculture technologies and farmer to farmer education. They have developed a new QPM corn seed (Quality Protein Maize) which is a complete protein and high in Zinc. Semilla Nueva promotes QPM as a solution to malnutrition in rural Guatemala where many people consume only corn tortillas as a cheap food for their families.
Vamos Adelante provides education, health and nutrition services to the poor in more than rural 24 villages in southern Guatemala. Miracles in Action has funded pigs and chickens and sponsored scholarships, stoves and water filters and built two schools/libraries through this long-term partner.
Village of Satakna and Santa Eulalia is unique in that we work directly with community leaders to provide safe stoves, water filters, and the building of School #33 with 6 retaining walls constructed of old tires filled with dirt. In 2019 we built our first special needs school for 28 children and young adults to learn skills for a better life. Marta Sicajan’s dream was to help mothers, like her, with special needs children. It’s Marta’s way to give back to her homeland in a project where she truly understands the needs of special children and their mothers.